


Traitor Baby

by Kenny (homesickhunter)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aunt Natasha Romanov, Clintasha mentions, Natasha Romanoff - Freeform, Protective Natasha Romanov, clint barton - Freeform, laura and clint are together now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 15:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18625630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homesickhunter/pseuds/Kenny
Summary: Natasha Romanoff still holds resentment that Clint Barton chose Laura over her, but three little children change her mind, and her life. Especially when the youngest learns to trust her as a confidant in their darkest moments.





	Traitor Baby

**Author's Note:**

> In 2015, right after I saw Age Of Ultron I wrote a fanfiction about Clint's youngest (the "traitor baby") being trans. After the heartbreak of Endgame, I decided to rewrite that cute moment of fiction.

Natasha never really got over the fact that Clint had such a happy family. She moved on, sure, but something about the thought that he could somehow lay in bed with Laura knowing what he did - what they did, together - for those nights in Budapest and so many after, made her perpetually uneasy. It wasn’t fair, she always thought, that he picked her just because it was safer. Who wanted to be with an assassin with fertility issues when you could have a lovely farm wife and three beautiful kids?

The kids. They were the ones who kept her jealousy from taking over her. They kept her down to earth when her head was in the clouds and all she wanted to do was scream and ask _Why the hell didn’t you pick me?_ She still loved him, more than she would ever admit, with more emotion and passion she would ever show, but hearing Lila call her “Auntie Nat” was enough to make some of that anger go away.

She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be flattered or even more upset when the Bartons announced that their third child would be named after her. A boy named Nathaniel - a traitor, she joked, no way to name a baby boy Natasha. And, maybe she was still a little jealous about the happy family, but, all of that melted when they set Nathaniel into her arms.

A baby boy. Swaddled in pale blue with matching blue eyes that locked to hers. It felt like something clicked right then and there and she held the boy close to herself, mumbling that “You’re too Goddamn cute to be a traitor.”

She went home and cried that night. With happiness, with jealousy, with resent, she didn’t know at that point. They all mixed together and erupted from her in heaving sobs that sent her crumbling to her knees. Mostly she cried for that baby boy, that beautiful baby boy and that perfect life he was going to have with her stupid perfect best friend and his stupid perfect wife.

She didn’t expect to get as close to Nathaniel as she did. She didn’t expect to form a bond that made it feel like they were flesh and blood, one that possibly even made Laura just the slightest bit jealous. She tried her hardest to not play favourites, but there came a point when the older two got too old for ice cream dates - rebellious preteen phases - and so it was just her and Nathaniel. From there onwards she found herself spending most of her “auntie time” with a little boy who liked to play with toy guns and talk about Captain America.

Nathaniel was nine when she noticed him changing. She expected him to grow up and away from her - that was inevitable. By now the older two were once again her fans and the team of four did most things together, but Nathaniel stopped wanting to go out. He stopped leaving his room at all, stopped eating. She could hear him cry a lot but he never told anyone why. He was almost 14 when Natasha had enough.

2 am on a Friday night. Natasha didn’t even try to sleep anymore, not to mention when she was visiting Clint and the kids. The guest room connected to Nathaniel’s by a thin wall and the redhead was leaning with her back against it now, listening to Tchaikovsky on low while she worked on her laptop. The crying from the other room was muffled by something - a pillow, most likely - but Natasha heard it. That was the last straw for her, the simplest thing to make her snap while a type of protective rage raised inside her.

Nathaniel’s door flew open with a bang but shut behind Natasha softly. It made him stir from his spot under piles of covers to surface to the real world, with his hair dishevelled and a glowing screen in his hands. “Shit, did I wake you up?” He asked in a small voice, for quite possibly the first time in his life sounding scared of his aunt.

Natasha shook her head and moved closer. She sat on the edge of the twin sized mattress, feeling it dip even under her featherlight weight. “No,” she said simply. She craned her neck to look over her nephew’s shoulder. He tried to yank away, but she got a look before the screen went black. It was a page of floral printed dresses, pink and yellow and so far from anything she herself would ever wear. “Are you crying over how ugly those dresses are?”

He seemed to retreat into himself at the comment, and Natasha found herself filling with instant regret, but not understanding when she went wrong. Before she could even apologize, though, Nathanial had turned to look at the wall adjacent to his bed, sniffling and shaking his head. “I thought they were nice,” He whispered.

She strained to hear him, but when she could process his words Natasha seemed to start to piece together what was going on. She didn’t dare to say it but repositioned herself so the two were side by side, reaching to take the phone from her nephew who gave it to her with little restraint. “Too expensive and pink. Try this.” She typed in an address on the phone and handed it back to Nathaniel. The expensive dresses were replaced by some reasonably priced ones, with lace and collars and everything that traditional style was not. Nathaniel audibly gasped when she handed the phone back, and though she tried to pass it off as a cough, Natasha knew it for what it was. “Which of those do you like?”

He pointed to a lacey black dress that buttoned in the front like a well-tailored shirt and Natasha found herself beaming with pride. Exactly what she would have picked. She added it to the cart and was already typing in her credit card number by the time Nathaniel noticed. “What are you doing? You never dress up.”

“It’s not for me,” she replied simply. “It’s for you.”

He froze and suddenly started reaching for the phone, which Natasha had no trouble keeping from his reach, even when that meant hanging upside down off the bed. “Aunt Nat I’m not...I don’t want that! I was just looking I--”

She sat up straight suddenly, tossing back his phone. _Purchase Confirmed._ “Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t want that dress.” He couldn’t look up, and Natasha nodded approvingly to herself. “Good, if it doesn’t fit give it to Lila. Anything else you want to tell me?”

Nathaniel looked up. His eyes were filled with tears as he stared at his straight and stoic Aunt, still somehow well poised despite that he knew she was well aware of what was going on. “I don’t want to be a boy anymore.”

He was shocked at her reply, just as straight and dry as all her others, “Then don’t.”

“It’s not that easy Aunt Nat. I can’t just change things overnight.” He sniffled, unafraid to let the tears fall now. He could feel Natasha pull him close and run her lanky fingers through his curls.

“Sure you can, you already got the hair.” She let him cry a little longer, not caring that her pyjama shirt was slowly getting soaked.

“I don’t have a name, mom and dad don’t know, I don’t have any girls clothes, I have no way to start.” All the worries spilled out at once and Natasha just listened, admiring shoulder-length brown locks and finally understanding why Nathaniel never got a haircut.

“Well you know what your parents wanted to call you if you were a girl--”

“I’m not sharing a name with you.” Nathaniel choked on a sob that turned into a laugh, scratchy and broken, but genuine. Natasha grinned too.

“Traitor.” She just shook her head and let the two of them stay there like that for a few moments. Nathaniel was still crying; not as hard now, but he still held onto his aunt as tight as he could. “What about Natalia?”

“...I like that one a lot.”


End file.
